Visited my old Master today. Knife and sword making

[WolfeMacleod]

Well, I went to my Master's shop today to spend some time with him, and talk about getting a better polish on the humbucker covers. He had some good advice to give, but I think I might hire him on occasionally to come in and do some polishing in-house, which takes up a good chunk of my time...
While there, I took a bunch of pictures.
For those who have been over here, (Carl...Heinz!) now you know where I get my keen sense of..organization! :P

Arriving at the run-down looking ranch, in the middle of a local Indian reservation. I helped move all this **** in here years and years ago, when the town of Marysville kicked Jess out...


The old man himself, making lunch. Go ahead...guess how old he is.
I'll give you a hint...recently, he was kicked by a horse while breaking it...


Shop hours. Much like my own.


I spent many, many hours seated right here...gettin' dirty, and burning the **** out of my hands on hot steel. When it's too hot to hold, you know the steel is too hot, and will start to affect the temper of the metal. Polishing a sharp blade...extremely dangerous.


Klingon bat'leth. We made many of these, for both the shows and the movies.





The anvil. A monster. The hammer on the anvil is heavy. Try forge-welding Damascus steel for several hourse, pounding away at it...dindging...dingding...


The newest apprentice, doing one of my old jobs.

[WolfeMacleod]

Organised chaos?


Horn, for making hilts and stuff.


The smaller anvil is about 150 pounds. The large one as I recall was 600.






A Flamberge blade. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamberge
Extremely difficult blade to grind.

[SlowToady]

I'm going to go out on a limb here....He's pretty good with his hands.

Cool stuff, hope he makes $$ for it.

[alf]

Cool. Got some pics of his finished work?

[Jeff Higgins]

Looks like a state-of-the-art facility.

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally posted by alf
Cool. Got some pics of his finished work?

Here's one, that I picked up a couple weeks ago. The one on the right was made by him. Sorry for the small pic. The Katana is a Chinese-made fighting quality folded steel blade I also picked up from him.
The mop is..well, a mop-sword. I got it because we don't own a mop for our kitchen.

[austin552]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeyfkqTbFD0

[Joeaksa]

Friend of mine made knives and such years ago. I have several hand made pieces and they are works of art.

Someday will try my hand at it.

[slodave]

I gave it a shot a number of years ago. I left the blade too thick on this one and it proved near impossible to put an edge on it. I did all of the sanding/polishing by hand. Boy, your fingers cramp and hurt after hours of that. I had always intended to try it again, but has not happened yet.

[Sonic dB]

I wouldnt mind having one of those swords for my wall someday...

That master's crib looks like the type of place to get a mason jar of moonshine, or roll up some homegrown...

But the Purity there is that this is a man who has Found his Place
in the Universe...and is totally happy with that. You can see it
in his place and face.
No regrets, no wishes, just pure living in joy.
There's alot of beauty in that. There really is.

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally posted by Sonic dB


But the Purity there is that this is a man who has Found his Place
in the Universe...and is totally happy with that. You can see it
in his place and face.
No regrets, no wishes, just pure living in joy.
There's alot of beauty in that. There really is.

That's for sure. He's one of the happiest, gentle, nicest guys I know.
He's also one of the meanest, orneryest SOB's I've ever met.

The sign on his bedroom door reads:
“Fight back! Whenever you are offered violence, fight back! The aggressor does not fear the law, so he must be taught to fear you. Whatever the risk, and at whatever the cost, fight back!” - Col. Col. Jeff Cooper

[Dixie]

...guess how old he is.

He is twenty-three, but DANG he's had some fun!

[bigchillcar]

very cool and interesting thread. thanks for posting the pics and history.

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally posted by Capt. Carrera
He is twenty-three, but DANG he's had some fun!

Hah.
He's 84, actually.
The horse-kick happened less than 6 months ago...

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by WolfeMacleod
The sign on his bedroom door reads:
“Fight back! Whenever you are offered violence, fight back! The aggressor does not fear the law, so he must be taught to fear you. Whatever the risk, and at whatever the cost, fight back!” - Col. Col. Jeff Cooper

Those of us who knew Jeff Cooper usually agree with that statement.

[bigchillcar]

wow, wolfe...84? he looks fantastic! i had a friend while i was married who's 88 and he's just the same. he would get into his car and come to visit us once or twice a month at least..driving 150 miles each way. guys like these are just fantastic.

[Jeff Higgins]

Very, very cool. Not many old school craftsmen like him left these days. So is he out on the Tulalip reservation now? Why would Marysville run him off? I suspect because he is somewhat of a non-conformist?

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally posted by Jeff Higgins
Very, very cool. Not many old school craftsmen like him left these days. So is he out on the Tulalip reservation now? Why would Marysville run him off? I suspect because he is somewhat of a non-conformist?

Yeah..somewhat non-conformist. Everett also ran him out.
And partially because he's a weapons manufacturer too.

[Overpaid Slacker]

You might enjoy another forum I frequent, that I was recently introduced to:

www.usualsuspect.net/forums.

It's not as organized as Pelican, perhaps, but if you enjoy knives and knife-making, it's exceptional. I dare say it has a sense of community that eclipses these boards, being funded almost exclusively by its members auctioning items to other members and donating the proceeds to the site.

JP